Valentine Vote

Summary

Courtney Larson is a lobbyist for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and Eric Morrison is a U.S. Senator from a North Carolina tobacco family. They’re entrenched on opposing sides of a new tobacco tax, with the vote slated for Valentine’s Day. As if that weren’t enough to have them running in opposite directions, Courtney is a sexual novice, and Eric has a framed riding crop in his office that Courtney thinks he uses for carnal pleasure. Their misreading of each other’s intents and desires makes for mixed signals politically and romantically. Can they find common ground on the Senate floor, and more importantly, in love?

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Valentine Vote - Susan Blexrud

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Chapter One

Courtney Larson flipped up the collar on her boiled wool coat, bracing herself for one of the coldest days in a brutal winter. She pushed open the door of the townhouse she shared in Foggy Bottom and squinted into the clear January sky. For a Florida girl, the weather in D.C. had been a rude awakening when she moved to the big city for law school at Georgetown University, but she loved every minute of it. Even the occasional exploding manhole cover in her neighborhood added excitement to the beat of a city that thrived on political tensions and monumental decisions. And being in the thick of it was part of the appeal.

A chilling breeze lifted Courtney’s shoulder-length hair out of her coat collar. Strawberry-blonde strands swirled around her face, sticking like fly paper to her raspberry lip gloss. Spitting wisps out of her mouth, she squared her shoulders to the wind, gritted her teeth, and ran the three blocks to her firm.

Morning, Courtney said to the receptionist, Elise, who jumped out of her chair, almost strangling herself with her headset.

Mr. Champion wants you in the conference room. Elise pointed down the opposite hall from Courtney’s office.

She smiled at Elise and then hurried to her office to deposit her coat and grab her iPad. Courtney assumed Mr. Champion wanted to talk about the tobacco vote and pressed a hand to her fluttering stomach. Everything she’d worked for over the last few years hung on this campaign.

Since her first year in law school, she’d positioned herself for a career in the political arena. As editor of the law review, she’d interned in Congress and then landed her dream job at Montgomery, Haskins & Knoll, one of the most prestigious lobbying firms in the nation’s capital. The icing on her professional cake was her first client, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. It was a major responsibility for a twenty-seven-year-old attorney, fresh out of law school, but her volunteer work had always been in support of non-profits, and she was thrilled that her firm had entrusted her with this challenge. She had until February 14, Valentine’s Day, to convince legislators to pass a bill for higher taxes on cigarettes, or as Courtney referred to them, cancer sticks.

This was more than dogged determination on her part; this was a personal vendetta. Her mother, Sylvia, a lifelong smoker, had died of lung cancer. While she’d tried to quit numerous times over the years, the addiction to nicotine always won out. Through six months of chemotherapy, Courtney watched her mom briefly rally and then succumb after a horrible few days of gasping for breath. She’d taken a sabbatical from school and was glad to have been there at the end, but the imprint of Sylvia’s death rattle would haunt her forever. Courtney blamed the tobacco companies, with their advertising targeted to young women. What had been promised to make her mother mysterious and enchanting ended up killing her. Though it had been more than two years, the pain of her passing still brought a lump to Courtney’s throat … every day. If her efforts could keep one teenager from smoking, her mom would smile down from heaven, and Courtney would know that another family wouldn’t experience the horror and pain her own family had endured.

• • •

Opening the door to the conference room, Courtney was surprised to find not only Bill Champion, her immediate boss, but also Alan Montgomery, one of the firm’s principals. Bill, always the height of fashion, wore pin-striped Armani, while the erudite Alan wore his signature tweed jacket with elbow patches. Her heart raced. If Montgomery was here, this was more than just a status meeting.

Miss Larson, don’t you look rosy this morning. Alan Montgomery was old school. No one under sixty would make that kind of comment for fear of being hit with a sexual harassment suit. And we’ll need you rosy. Actually, we’ll need you marathon ready. How’s tobacco doing?

Quite good, sir. We’ve got our votes in the House. I just need to shore up a few senators. If I can convince the one senator from North Carolina with Big Tobacco in his pocket, I feel sure the remaining four votes will be ours.

And there’s the rub, Alan said. Senator Eric Morrison will be a tough nut to crack. His mother’s a Roark, the family that brought us the world’s best-selling cigarette."

Yes, sir, but I’ve been working on an angle. Courtney took a chair at the conference table, joining the two men. She opened her iPad and accessed the campaign’s file. She’d created folders for each of the legislators she’d been hired to sway, or rather, educate. Delving into their personal lives to find their soft spots, like kids and pets (a dog could even get asthma from secondhand smoke), she’d also identified the friends and family members each legislator could lose as a result of cancer, emphysema and heart disease—all tobacco related conditions. In addition to their familial status, she’d listed everything from hobbies to philanthropic pursuits.

Courtney clicked on the Senator Eric Morrison file. Up popped his gorgeous face—the chiseled jaw, full lips, aquiline nose, and deep-set eyes. She took a few moments to drink in the senator’s image, and then realized her superiors were waiting for her. She cleared her throat. Here’s our guy.

Give me the lowdown, Alan said.

"Never been married, but he’s not gay, or at least if he is, he hides it well. Graduated from Yale Law School. He was in a relationship with a woman he met there, but she took a job in L.A., and they evidently had a parting of the ways because, as far as I can tell, they’re not tearing up the airways to see each other. He rarely frequents bars and isn’t known as a partier, unless there’s a congressional event or fundraiser, in which case he usually makes an appearance, but he doesn’t linger. He’s known as a moderate Democrat, so at least he’s more open-minded than some of the ‘no tax’ Republicans.

But anyway, that’s all minor stuff compared to the big kahuna. As you know, his contributions from Big Tobacco are substantial. He’s surely dug in, but I’ve got some thoughts for an approach.

Courtney took a deep breath.

Well, don’t keep us in suspense, Bill said. His background makes him a particularly valuable vote. If someone with a vested interest in tobacco can see the light …

Okay. Courtney fingered her pearl choker. Well, the last thing he’ll want is to be perceived as pandering to the tobacco industry. It would be a major conflict of interest. So we can argue that if he supported higher taxes on tobacco, his political capital would glow with integrity.

Except that his constituents are from tobacco country, and those folks smoke. If I’m not mistaken, they still smoke in bars in Winston-Salem. Bill nodded. Check that, will you?

Yes sir, I will. Courtney made a note in her iPad. I’m meeting with Senator Morrison tomorrow, so I’ll do reconnaissance today.

What does he care about? Alan asked. Are there any issues he’d trade his tobacco vote for?

Courtney scanned the Morrison folder. He’s a Big Brother to a foster kid in McLean. He takes the boy to Redskins and Wizards games. There’s a photo here of them together at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. She had to smile at the adorable image of the regal senator and a young boy holding a huge cone of cotton candy. She turned her iPad around so Bill and Alan could see. And he’s spearheaded some efforts for Special Olympics. That’s a possibility. There’s funding for Special Olympics bundled into a non-profit bill coming up on the floor.

See if you can work that, Bill said. Anything else?

He’s been a spokesman for animal rights, especially for farm animals. He marshaled a bill last year for humane slaughtering. Courtney grimaced. Isn’t that an oxymoron?

Bill ignored her rhetorical question. He rubbed his chin. The fellow’s a saint.

Courtney wrinkled her nose. But is he a good guy or is it all for show? I mean, really, can he be that honorable if he endorses tobacco? She shut her iPad, and then patted it with conviction. Gentlemen, I want you to know that I won’t be happy with anything less than complete satisfaction, and that means Senator Morrison in our camp. She rose from her chair, tucked her iPad under her arm, and strode from the room.

Chapter Two

In law school, Courtney had reeked geek. From her thick eyeglasses to her flat loafers, she exuded the musty fragrance of old books. Anyone that nerdy had to be at the top of the class. And she was.

Of course, part of the reason she’d been such an exemplary student was her lack of distractions. Who needed men when you could get yourself off more quickly and efficiently than any man could? At least any man Courtney had ever met. She was the only post-law school virgin she knew, but she didn’t regret the time she’d spent on her studies instead of fawning over a boy. She’d briefly dated a professor at Georgetown, but when he’d started hinting at taking it to the next level, Courtney had broken it off. Besides, her career was too important to have her grades called into question if it ever came to light.

Later, she had wondered if part of the professor’s appeal was his being off limits. Did she like that they had to sneak around because of his status as a professor? Maybe. Could it be that she was